Hearing and Sound Waves Lesson Plan

1. Stretch & pray.

2. Read and discuss Proverbs 25:12.

3. Read "Look, Listen, Taste, Touch, and Smell" by Pamela Nettleton about the 5 senses. Tell children we'll be focusing on listening today.

4. Hearing Games. Divide children into 2 groups (older children and younger children).

a. Station 1: Mystery Noises: Have children turn around and close their eyes. Make noises with various objects and have children try to guess what is making that sound. Shake pennies in a can, crumple up paper, close a book, bounce a ball, hit a frying pan, etc.
PERSON 1: YOU WILL NEED: multiple noise makers of your choice

b. Station 2: In the Middle: Blindfold one person and have him sit in the middle of the group. Have the other children form a circle around the blindfolded person. Point to one of the people in the circle and have him say the seated person's name. The seated person must then try point in the direction of the voice and identify the name of the person who said his name. Try this with the seated person using both ears and then again with one ear closed. How accurate can the center person identify the caller and where the call came from? Are two ears better than one?
PERSON 2: YOU WILL NEED: Blindfold

5. Read about the parts of the ear: "Shhhh: A Book About Hearing" by Dana Meachen Rau.

6. Make a crawl-through ear. Divide children into 3 groups and give each group a bucket with items. One group creates the outer ear. One group creates the middle ear. One group creates the inner ear. Here's what our children used: Pop-up play tent = Auricle. One flap was open for the hole & the other flap was down for the ear drum. Inside was yellow play-doh=ear wax & brown yarn = hairs. The middle ear was under a table=ear canal. An empty 2-liter bottle was the Eustachian tube. We also had a 2 liter bottle filled with mustard & water to represent the Eustachian tube filled with mucus when someone's sick. The hammer was a toy hammer. The anvil was a toy drumstick. The stirrup was a triangle (musical instrument). The oval window was a plastic bin was some water which surrounds the cochlea = a dish towel wrapped about a Pledge duster (the cilia-like hairs in the cochlea) & taped to stay together. It sat in the water since there's liquid in the cochlea. Jump ropes were used for the auditory nerves. Pillows were used for the brain.
PERSON 3: YOU WILL NEED: 3 plastic bins & various items (see above for ideas)

7. Divide into 3 groups.

a. Station 1: Remind the children of what each part represents. Have each child crawl through the ear twice. The first time through, have the child name each part as they go through. The second time through, have a mom tell the child a short joke and then crawl through the ear to the brain and deliver your message to the brain. The children who are waiting for their turn get to try to answer the joke/riddle. We used jokes related to the ear.

b. Station 2: Listen to your heartbeat using a stethoscope. Let everyone get a turn. Talk about how a stethoscope works.
PERSON 4: YOU WILL NEED: a stethoscope & alcohol wipes (or alcohol & paper towels)

c. Station 3: Look into a child's ear using an otoscope. Let everyone have a turn. Put on headphones or ear plugs & try to talk to each other. Talk about how an otoscope works and how headphones muffle sound.
PERSON 1: YOU WILL NEED: an otoscope, alcohol wipes (or alcohol & paper towels), & ear phones or ear plugs

(Note: If you don't have access to an otoscope or stethoscope, you could have the children talk to each other through a door or wall and you could have them learn to spell their names in sign language.)

8. Read about and discuss sound waves: "Sounds All Around" by Wendy Pfeffer.

9. How Sound Waves Move Demo: Show how sound waves move by having two children hold a slinky and bounce it back and forth between them. Then place a bowl of water in the middle of the group and toss a small object in the middle. Have the children observe the ripples going out just like sounds waves.
PERSON 2: YOU WILL NEED: a slinky, a bowl of water, and a pebble (or any other object)

10. Make a model eardrum. Stretch plastic wrap tightly over a bowl and secure with a rubber band. Sprinkle a few grains of sugar on the plastic and yell at it through a paper megaphone.

PERSON 3: YOU WILL NEED: plastic wrap, bowl, rubber band, sugar, and a megaphone or papers rolled up for megaphones

11. Make paper cup phones.. Give each child a pair of paper cups and a length of string. Have them make a hole in the bottom of each cup with a sharp pencil. Thread the ends of the string through the holes in the cups from the outside in, making a knot at each end of the string to keep the string ends from slipping out of the holes. Have one child stand at one end of the room while the other child moves as far away as needed to make the string taut. Each child will take a turn speaking into the "phone" while the other listens at the other end. This only works if the string is taut. Quickly discuss how these work using this explanation from ehow.com.
PERSON 4: YOU WILL NEED: 20 lengths of string/yarn at least 3' long, 40 paper cups, 10 pencils/pens

14. Eat noisy snacks
PERSON 1: YOU WILL NEED: napkins, cups, and a few snack items that make noise (animal crackers, chips, apple slices, baby carrots, etc.)

15. 5 minute review of what we learned

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